09/25/2016

Cover Letters - Don't just answer help-wanted, prospect

One is to default to just hunt by clicking on the help-wanted ads such as on Craigslist or those associated with our profession, answer them, and wait.

Since the competition is brutal - about 300 responses - that tactic can be unproductive. We don't find work. At least not the well-paying stimulating kind.

An alternative goes back to the 1970s. It was then that the career guide "What Color Is Your Parachute?" was published. It documented that most work comes through sending out unsolicited pitches. The book was on the money. I landed my first wonderful corporate job at Chevron that way. I made the leap from non-profit and not-enough-money-to-live-on.

During the next whopper of a recession, I leveraged the same tactic. I landed a job at Chrysler.

Now that I have relocated to the East Coast, after healing myself and my business in the Southwest, I am back to prospecting through unrequested pitched. Of course, I still answer help-wanted. And I present myself through word of mouth. Yes, from the get-go, I had business cards printed up.

Within two days, I received my first reply. The company wanted samples of my audio and video work. That I emailed pronto.

I found the mailing lists by keying in "corporations in Cleveland, Ohio" and "educational institutions in Ohio." Free listings came up. Some were out-of-date. But what the keck. I only wasted a total of about 50 minutes.

Pittsburgh is about a 90-minute drive from here so I will prospect there this week.

As we age, given the age bias in western society, we have to become open in how we look for work. It is by experimenting that we will discover what gets results, at least at the time. That might change as the marketplace changes.